Subject: Re: Missing birds
Date: Jul 17 15:22:49 1996
From: mwaller at wolfenet.com - mwaller at wolfenet.com


>Peggi Rodgers writes:
>
>>The Red-winged blackbirds are pretty much gone as are the swallows.
>
>>I know many of these guys are migrants, but isn't it a bit early for them to
>>begin disappearing? Several people in the area have also commented to me
>>that there aren't the usual number of hummers this year.
>
>----------------------------------------
>Last year the violet-green swallows disappeared from our neighborhood and
>I had assumed that they were on their way south. A couple weeks later I
>was in the Snohomish River valley about 15 miles east of where I live and
>there were hundreds of violet-greens hanging out on the power lines and
>fences of the farms. I believe that this was a pre-migratory
>staging/grouping area and that the swallows from my neighborhood were
>among them or another group nearby.
>
>Ed Schulz
>Everett, WA
>eschulz at eldec.com
>
Ed,

We had the same experience last year with both V-G and Barn Swallows
leavingthe neighborhood then seeing masses of them on utility lines along
the Green River.

Mike


Mike Waller
Manager of Operations
Woodland Park Zoo
5500 Phinney Avenue N.
Seattle, WA 98103
ph: (206)684-4057
fax:(206)684-4817
e-mail: mwaller at wolfenet.com